My Final Airman Brief

Through considering a wide range of directors styles and designs, I will take the role of Production Design for Airman, and create unique ideas for the potential film. I am drawing influence from books and a variety of films, such as Studio Ghibli's Laputa : Castle in the Sky, and Matthew Vaughn's Stardust to make sure I attract the right audience.

My design's will be aimed for a 12A certificate, keeping with the book's target audience as this will be the main demographic who have heard of the story initially. It also must be appropriate for adults, so they want to take their children to see it. I will look at films that have successfully achieved this; Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, and try to understand how they used cinematography, visual effects, colour and atmosphere to make it appropriate for both.

I want to keep the adaptation true to the book, which I found very dark. It is definitely too dramatic to follow the action/adventure genre too closely. Little Saltee needs to feel cold, dark, damp and like a living hell. Great Saltee on the other hand needs to feel warm and safe. There is an image toward the end of the story of the villain getting dragged out of a window in the glider after being shot, with his blood dripping all over the streets below. If done without showing too much blood this could be very disturbing, without upsetting the younger audience.

The design’s must be appropriate to the Victorian era and demonstrate available materials and construction methods for this period. They must inform but not overpower the narrative and support but not control the characters actions.

I will consider how colour and cinematography tricks might help enhance the mood during certain points of the book. As it is set on two islands I want there to be an apparent difference between the two; this might be achieved through filters, different formats, or colour palettes. Website such as cinematography.com are very useful for looking at how other films achieve such effects. I want to achieve a very bright and colourful atmosphere, with soft lighting at the beginning of the film. When it turns very dark the colours could be much blacker, mainly relying on harsh lighting and textures to add variation on screen. Grain could also be added to create a sense of realism.
When designing it is important to consider what shots might be appropriate to the target audience and to allow for the visual effects to seem more realistic. If CGI is used my instinct would be to avoid too many long shots, but keep it jerky and quick to suggest an action rather than allow the audience time to notice any small discrepancies.

By studying the Production Designer’s role closely I will need to show an understanding of the processes and criteria that must be fulfilled to clearly inform other departments at the pre-production stage.

I will keep in mind budget, deciding what might be the best way to keep costs down through CGI or model making techniques. I will need to look at how visual effects have been achieved in the past, and whether they are suitable for Airman. Although a budget is not set, I want to make sure I am considerate of how much I could potentially be spending were the production to go ahead. This will need to be achieved through charts and material costings, as well as scheduling how long it would take a design team to produce the required pieces.
When looking at materials to use for the models, I need to choose based on how they would come across on camera, if shortcuts can be made by using a slightly cheaper material than suggested in the book; it is ok to do so as long as it is realistic under scrutiny of the cinematic screen.

I need to think about location within the budget. As the book is set in a real place, albeit a deserted place, filming there could be considered. However, as it would be completely over budget to create an entire kingdom, it could probably be explored for research purposes, and surrounding shots. If shooting could be achieved in Oxford or Edinburgh with postproduction CGI for wide shots, and studio filming for specific designs for example, it would save production time and budget.